South Texas Soul

San Antonio is the music capital of South Texas. This excerpt from the documentary South Texas Soul explains how the music of Mexico, Germany, and Czechoslovakia melded with rock-and-roll and later country-and-western to create a distinct regional sound. The video also includes some fine exterior shots of San Antonio neighborhoods, landmarks, and businesses:



The Texas Tornados -- comprised of the late, great Doug Sahm, the late, great Freddy Fender, the great Flaco Jimenez, and the great Augie Meyers -- cut loose on Sahm's Tex-Mex arrangement of "Is Anybody Goin' to San Antone:"



Back in the late 70s, Augie Meyers often came into the bar where I worked. His drink, as I recall, was Tanqueray and tonic. He liked me, probably because I was generous with the Tanqueray. Here he is singing "Hey, Baby, Que Paso?", the San Antonio national anthem:



The Allman Brothers had nothing on Augie and Flaco's twin accordions!

Girl in a Coma is one of the new San Antonio bands. This video of their song "El Monte" is exquisite:



I don't write much about San Antonio here, but I loved going to school there and living there after. It's my favorite city, although it might be more accurate to call it a big small town. The Riverwalk is fine, but the old neighborhoods, especially the King William District, give San Antonio almost as much of its character as the people...